Neural and ocular correlates of visuospatial problem solving processes

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Enformatik Enstitüsü, Bilişsel Bilimler Anabilim Dalı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: GAMZE TÜRKMEN

Danışman: MURAT PERİT ÇAKIR

Özet:

Current thesis analyzes the neural and ocular correlates of visuospatial problem solving processes by investigating three different two-dimensional problems which are constructed with regard to different problem features and problem spaces. Recent studies focused on visuospatial problem solving processes suggest that eye tracking and functional near-infrared spectroscopy methodologies can provide better understanding of fixation patterns and working memory demands respectively. Experimental protocol including various visuospatial problem tasks was applied to approximately 20 young adults. While completion times and accuracy percentage were calculated for behavioral results, fixation duration, the number of fixation and fixation rate were calculated for eye-tracking results and maximum oxygenation values (i.e. peak values) were calculated for fNIR results. During problem solvers engaged in visuospatial tasks, behaviors which were categorized as distance, similarity and orientation were observed from scan path analysis. Results revealed that different working memory load and fixation related patterns occurred for different visuospatial reasoning tasks.